


Born Of Fury

by malinaldarose (coralysendria)



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Community: trope_bingo, Fairy Tale Style, Gen, Trope Bingo Amnesty, Trope Bingo Round 6, Twins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-29
Updated: 2016-06-29
Packaged: 2018-07-19 00:31:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7337302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coralysendria/pseuds/malinaldarose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A fairy tale AU origin story for Wanda and Pietro Maximoff.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Born Of Fury

**Author's Note:**

> This fills the AU: Fairy Tale / Myth square on my Trope Bingo Round 6 card.

Once upon a time, not such a very long time ago, there lived a wizard in a mansion by the sea. He was a war wizard, this man, and his wares were in high demand. The wizard himself was, perhaps, a good man -- or, at least, not a _bad_ man, but horrible deeds were done with his creations. There came a time when this wizard was abducted by men of great evil, so that he might fashion weapons solely at their bidding and for their cause. Instead, he took the materials they gave him and built for himself a suit of magical red armor chased with gold, and wearing it, he destroyed them utterly. 

But this is not his tale -- though the blame for much of what follows can be laid at his feet. Not his tale, but he does come into it. Now and again.

In the country of Sokovia, in the time just a little before the abduction of the war wizard, there lived a small family: mother and father, brother and sister. The children were closer than other siblings, having been born twins. The brother, who was the elder by six minutes, was called Pietro, while his sister was named Wanda.

The family lived in the city from which the country took its name. Master Maximoff -- for that was the family's name -- was a shopkeeper. His father had been a shopkeeper, and his father before him. The family lived in the upper stories of the building that housed their shop. They were happy enough there; the shop was prosperous enough that they did not want for much. The children went to school, helped around the shop, and played with their friends. For them -- far removed from the worries of adults -- life was perfect.

The city of Sokovia was on the plain beneath a mountain. Atop the mountain was a castle in which lived the Baron, who was also a war wizard. But where the Iron-Red Knight did his work only on _things_ , the Baron made weapons of _people._ The citizens of Sokovia mostly ignored the existence of the Baron in his castle, and he returned the favor. There were always rumors of people missing from the city, people who had been spirited away to the castle to become the subjects of the Baron's tinkering, but no one actually knew anyone who had disappeared. The stories were always about the friend of a friend of a friend. 

In the twins' tenth year, war came to Sokovia. It was not that the country _went_ to war -- it was more that a war that had been happening some distance away rolled across its borders.

With the war, came the machinery of the war wizards. 

After his abduction, the war wizard who became the Iron-Red Knight, had traveled the world destroying the weapons he had built. But he was not able to find them all, and it came to pass that those who fought the war that now raged in Sokovia had a hoard of such weapons.

For a time, it seemed that the war would not bother the capital city as the fighting was far away on the country's borders. But for those who fought with the war machines created by the Iron-Red Knight borders meant nothing, for he had enchanted his creations with the power of flight. And one day, that flying war machinery came to the city.

The twins, Pietro and Wanda, were playing in the forest at the base of the mountain when they heard the noise of the attack. To the children it sounded as though the gods themselves hammered on their city. They crept toward the edge of the wood, and saw the war machines in the air. They saw the sigil of the Iron-Red Knight. They saw the flames as the city burned.

Tears rolled down both their faces as they watched. Even when the attack ended, when the war machines flew away or crashed to the ground, still the city burned. And still the twins watched.

It was early the next morning before they dared go home. They left the safety of the wood, entering the city hand in hand. There were still fires in some places, but the Iron-Red Knight's machines were very precise, and so there were also places where the city was entirely untouched.

"Mama and Papa will be all right," Pietro, the elder twin, assured his sister. "You will see."

Wanda only nodded, looking at the devastation with wide eyes.

But when they reached their home, they found only a smoking ruin. A war machine had fallen directly on the building, their neighbor told them, clucking his tongue. A horrible thing. Fortunate for them that they had not been there. 

"Please, sir, may we stay with you?" Pietro asked "My sister and I have no place to go."

Their neighbor's pious expression changed. "What? Stay with me? I have no use for orphaned children. Be off with you. Go to the church." And he turned his back on them, walked into his unscathed home, and closed the door.

Pietro's eyes filled with tears, but he blinked them away. He would be strong for his sister. He reached out and took Wanda's hand, but when he met her eyes, he was astounded to see the fury on her sweet face.

"Wanda?"

"They will pay," was all she said. And now it was she who led Pietro. But it was not to the ancient church in the center of the city that her steps led. She walked away from the ruins of their home, walked away from the city, and led Pietro up the mountain to Baron Strucker's castle. 

"They will pay," she repeated every time Pietro asked where she was taking them. " _He_ will pay."

Night had fallen by the time they reached the castle, but though Pietro nervously peered into the darkness surrounding them, Wanda's steps were sure, and her eyes were fixed on the castle gate. She knocked firmly with her tiny fist. Slowly, ponderously, the great gate swung open. Wanda and Pietro, still hand in hand, entered the courtyard. Ahead, a light shone in a doorway. Wanda led Pietro to the door and stepped through without hesitation, taking her brother with her.

There, the twins stopped for a moment, blinking in the brightness.

"Welcome!" The booming voice came from ahead, and Wanda stepped eagerly in that direction.

Standing near a roaring fire, a man awaited them. He was not so tall, Pietro saw, nor yet stooped. He was balding, and the monocle in his left eye reflected the fire as he turned to them, making it seem as if he had no eye on that side, but only flames. The illusion passed as they came nearer. He would not, Pietro thought, have looked so out of place down in the city, but there was no doubt that this was the Baron.

"Ah," he said, "the Maximoff twins." His face creased in a smile.

For the first time, Wanda seemed uncertain. "You know us, my lord?"

"Of course, my child. I am a wizard. I know all that passes in and near my domain. You have come for my help, have you not?"

"Yes," Wanda said. "The Iron-Red Knight must pay for what he did to our family."

"How far are you willing to go for vengeance, child?" It sounded like an idle question, but the wizard's eyes were intent.

Pietro had finally caught some of his sister's fire, and now it was he who spoke. "We will go as far as is needful, my lord. We have no more family. It is up to us to avenge them. Will you give us the means?"

"Is this truly what you want?" the Baron asked. "My gifts are not to be wasted on those who are not certain of their course. And it is not an easy thing, to come into power. There will be hardship. And pain."

"Give us the power, Baron." The light of the fire was now reflected in Wanda's eyes, turning them an unholy red.

The Baron gazed at her for a long moment, then turned to Pietro and looked deeply into his eyes also. He nodded, once. "Very well. We will begin. Come with me."

Turning, he led the way deeper into the castle. Hand in hand, the Maximoff twins followed.


End file.
